A grandchild
No encomium penned by me can suffice to adequately describe Bubby a”h. This is but a small glimpse of her gadlus. “The sefarim are burning!” It was on a Friday night many years ago, when Bubby, zt”l awoke from a dream so real that she continued exclaiming to Zaidy Nison zt”l, “The sefarim are burning”. He attempted to reassure her that it was just a dream. Then they heard the phone ringing. Zaidy’s father was quite ill at the time, and they were afraid that something may have happened to him. A short while later, their unlisted phone began to ring as well and Zaidy paskened that one of the young children should knock the phone off the base with a shinui to find out who was calling. By the time that the child was woken up, the ringing had ceased. Very early in the morning, Zaidy left to walk to his parents’ apartment to check up on them and if everything was all right to then proceed to the shul where he was Rav. Bubby anxiously awaited his return. As soon as she heard the stairway door open, she rushed out to the hall and immediately smelled the stench of smoke. Zaidy greeted Bubby, “Tell me again, what did you dream of last night?” “The sefarim were burning.” “Well,” said Zaidy, “my shul burned down last night. One of the firemen had been calling to inform me. It was firebombed by a gang.” Mayor Lindsay later called to express his condolences and promised that he would try to apprehend the criminals. There was an extremely emotional levayah held for the Sifrei Torah that were burned and the whole East Side community attended.
Bubby had many dreams which exhibited her extraordinarily close connection to Hashem. Bubby a”h was born in 1935 in Beth Israel Hospital in Manhattan. She was the third daughter of Rabbi Chaim Pinchas and Rebbetzin Basha Scheinberg zt”l and the first to be born in America. Their first two children were born in Europe as the young couple had traveled to Mir, Poland so that Rav Scheinberg could learn in the famed Mir Yeshiva as his father- in – law, Rabbi Yaakov Yosef Herman zt”l had wanted and enabled them to do. Bubby went to public school until the age of nine when Rabbi Newhouse zt”l opened up Bais Yaakov in Williamsburg. Every day, Bubby would travel over the Williamsburg Bridge, from the Lower East Side to Williamsburg. She used to recall the excitement of being in a class of all frum girls; what a novelty! She continued to attend Bais Yaakov until her marriage at the age of seventeen. Her choson, Zaidy Nison Alpert, zt”l was a talmid muvhak of Rav Moshe Feinstien zt”l and the shadchanim were Rav and Rebbetzin Feinstein, a”h! They settled on the Lower East Side and were zochim to raise their mishpacha in the shadow of greatness; as they lived in the same building as Rav Moshe zt”l. Bubby a”h brought up six children in that two bedroom apartment. For years, the young women in the building would gather in Bubby’s apartment on Shabbos. One lady came to thank Bubby before she moved away. “We had such wonderful times in your home on Shabbos; enjoying each others’ company, but what’s incredible is that there was never a word of lashon hora spoken!” The Mishna in Pirkei Avos states that the world stands on three pillars: Torah, Avoda and Gemilus Chasodim. As my cousin, Dovid Alpert, n”y explained in his hesped, Bubby personified each of these three traits. Bubby grew up in the house of a gadol b’Torah and spoke of her childhood with great pride. She witnessed firsthand what it means to be moser nefesh for Torah and her whole life she followed in her parents’ ways. Zaidy Nison learned for many years and then served as a Rebbe, Rosh Yeshiva and Rav.
Money was certainly scarce but Bubby didn’t look at it as sacrificing for Torah; on the contrary, it was her life’s privilege to support her husband’s Torah endeavors. Bubby was a bedrock of emuna and bitachon; brimming with simchas hachaim! “Hashem has good things in store”, “Hashem is a guta Tatte” “What Siyata Dishmaya!”, these were some of the phrases that were constantly on her lips as she looked for the good that Hashem had showered upon her. To paraphrase Abie Rotenberg, “It happened one Erev Shabbos, there simply was no money….” Bubby, a young wife and mother, could not afford to buy groceries for Shabbos, but she believed with perfect faith that Hashem would provide them with their needs. She went downstairs to retrieve the mail from the lobby and began riffling through the envelopes. Nestled among the bills was an envelope that was personally addressed to Rabbi and Mrs. Alpert. Ripping open the letter, Bubby read the following note. “I recently found this check that I had intended to give you as a wedding gift. It is several years later, but I would like you to have it now.” Enclosed was a check that would more than adequately cover the Shabbos expenses! What was Bubby’s fervent wish? Torah nachas! Or rather “Teira Nachas”, as she pronounced with her strong Litvishe accent. Over and over again this is what we heard her beseech Hashem for and bentch us with. In addition, she would say, “and nachas from zich alein!” Teaching us that it is not sufficient to strive to raise children on the path of Torah but to continuously work on ourselves as well. “Unishalma Parim Sifaseinu”- Nowadays, in galus, bereft of our Bais Hamikdash, Tefilos have taken the place of korbanos. How Bubby loved to daven! She was constantly looking forward to the next Tefila; cheshboning when and what she could daven and had numerous people in mind. Even in recent times, when she was weaker, it was a given that she would daven all three tefilos. Many times, Bubby would begin Shemone Esrei standing, and midway, need to sit on the arm of the couch, for lack of koach, but it never entered her mind to just skip davening!
During the last tekufa of her illness, I was visiting her in the hospital when she began to motion something to me. Over and over, she pointed to her wrist, obviously requesting something, but I could not figure out what it was! I tried asking every possible question I could think of, “Does your hand hurt?” “Is there something there?”, but each time she shook her head no. Finally, it dawned upon me, “Bubby, do you want to know what time it is?” At last, she nodded yes. It was just about shkiya, and Bubby must have sensed it. “Do you want me to daven Mincha out loud with you?” A nod! At a time when she was in such pain, this was the crucial request that Bubby had; to daven Mincha b’zman! Much of Bubby’s life was devoted to myriad chasodim. She emulated Hkb”H, l’hachayos ruach shefolim… u’l’hachayos lev nidkaim. One of the many chasodim that occupied her days and nights was that of making shidduchim. She was constantly trying, and numerous times had the zechus of succeeding in bringing together zivugim. So many of our conversations were peppered with, “Maybe you know someone for….”
Bubby didn’t merely suggest a name but was a ‘dating coach’ for singles long before the term was coined, lovingly guiding them from research to dating through engagement and on to marriage. As one woman who got married later in life mentioned during shiva, “She never told me to compromise. She built me up.” Perhaps it was her strong desire to create more batim in Klal Yisroel that led her to incredible series of hashgacha pratis in the making of matches. One such story that comes to mind is as follows. Bubby was invited to a simcha, a Shabbos bar mitzvah, I believe. One of Bubby’s most famous mottos was, “Tzu a simcha mir daf loifen”, and, indeed, she spent days working on rides to get to and from smachos. In keeping with her mehalech hachaim, she made plans to attend the simcha, although there was a snowstorm and she almost didn’t make it, with the ‘siyata dishmaya’ that she was famous for, she made it! After the seuda, walking out of the Shul, there was a bochur on the steps who was being introduced by a friend to a Shadchan who was standing near Bubby. That very Motze Shabbos, a woman called regarding her daughter, and Bubby thought it was a tzugepasta shidduch for that bochur. And so it was, Baruch Hashem! Once, shortly before Shabbos, Bubby received a phone call with a “yes” for a girl. Right after licht bentchen, she turned to my mother, who was then a young girl, and said, “I must walk over to the girl’s house. Why should she have to spend Shabbos not knowing that she received a yes; think of the simcha that it will bring her and her mother!”
When her youngest son, Shaya a”h was only twenty years old, he was niftar. Soon after, Bubby became an almana. She utilized her nisyonos as a catalyst for an untold number of chasodim; for she would often go to be Menachem Avel others, even those she did not know, to offer chizuk from a place of personal experience. Many people shared how they held onto the uplifting words she shared during their shiva for years! One such incredible story that only came to our family’s attention during the shiva, is the following. One day, a local Far Rockaway woman, Mrs. B. noticed Bubby walking and offered her a ride. “Where are you going?” Bubby inquired, not wanting to take her out of the way. “I can drop you off in Cedarhurst” Mrs. B. said “but, actually, I am on the way to Great Neck to be menachem avel a family whose daughter drowned.” “Forget my errands in Cedarhurst; I am coming with you to comfort this family,” was Bubby’s immediate response! Never mind that she did not know this family at all and they were not religious; a Jewish family was suffering and she felt that she could help them, how could she pass up this golden opportunity? The next part of this story was shared with us during Shiva by one of the family members of the nifteres from Great Neck, whom we will call Jenna. I am paraphrasing some of what she told us. “We had lost our father the year before my sister’s tragic death and the loss was horrific. We heard that a Rebbetzin was coming to comfort us and were blown away when this classily dressed woman of regal bearing walked in; not what we expected! She sat with us for hours, we couldn’t get enough of her words of comfort! She explained the concept of Neshamos and that our relatives are never ‘lost’.” ‘You now have two ‘protectors’ who are with Hashem watching you from Heaven’, she told us”. The mother also said that Bubby shared a personal story of how she felt that Shayala’s Neshoma, a”h interceded on her behalf, shortly after his petira. “I had lost my husband and now my daughter and I did not think I would ever be able to get up again, but she lifted me and gave me hope.” Before she left their house, Bubby took down their number and assured the family that she would be in touch.
“We had been through shiva already with our father’s death,” Jenna continued, “and knew from experience that promises to ‘keep in touch’ made during nichum aveilim were not usually kept. Peoples’ lives move on and they forget about the family’s loss. But this was not the case with Rebbetzin Alpert. She called every week for the next six years, until she herself was too sick to speak! She continuously encouraged us, speaking about Hashem, Moshiach, Mitzvos etc. even meeting up with me and buying me kosher food! Today, I am a religious woman and my family and even a friend, have grown in Yiddishkeit thanks in large part to the Rebbetzin!” All of this was done without any fanfare; hence, we, her family, were not even aware of this chain of events until after Bubby’s petira!
One of the last Shabbosos that Bubby was alive, my cousin was with her in the hospital, when she noticed that Bubby was trying to say something. She leaned forward, as did the nurse, straining to hear what Bubby was attempting to articulate. Gathering up her koach, Bubby suddenly called out, “Moshiach!” Bubby lived with the arrival of Moshiach at the forefront of her mind. It is not surprising that the last coherent word that she said was Moshiach! May she be a melitzas yosher for the entire Klal Yisroel and hasten his arrival! As my Uncle Shaye zt”l inscribed in the siddur that he gifted Bubby with when he was a young boy, “Let us pray for Moshiach to come and Moms, thanks for being the Mommy you are! There’s no better!” I know that the transition for Bubby from this World to the Olam Hemes must have been seamless, as she lived with Hashem always.
Yehi zichra baruch.
